It Does Not Do To Dwell On Dreams
It had to end sometime. But how does it feel now for the actors who spent their teenage years growing up in public as stars of the extraordinarily successful fantasy saga, Harry Potter?
Roe McDermott, 26 Jul 2011
Since 1997, Harry Potter has been the most talked-about literary phenomenon of our time. Ostensibly a children’s book but loved by adults too, following its initial best-selling success, it carried on to claim its place as one of the biggest and most pervasive – not to mention lucrative – cultural events of the modern era.
In 2001, the film adaptation, of JK Rowling’s original novel hit our cinema screens and the decade since has been punctuated with the release of eight films, each one as hugely successful as the last.
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is the last in the franchise that launched the acting careers of James and Oliver Phelps and Evanna Lynch, AKA The Wesley Twins and Luna Lovegood – and turned them into bona fide stars.
“It’s mixed emotions at the moment,” says 20 year-old Evanna Lynch, the Irish actress who beat 15,000 auditionees to play space-cadet witch Luna Lovegood. “At the London premiere last night everyone felt a bit tearful. Even JK Rowling was crying. No matter how much you talk about it and acknowledge it, the end is overwhelming. It’s all gone by so quickly.”
But, much like their prankster characters Fred and George Weasley, Oliver and James Phelps weren’t letting anything get them down.
“Nah, we didn’t tear up,” says Oliver, before adding cheekily. “Unlike Daniel. What can we say, we’re just harder men than the little guy. Not to mention taller!”
Not that this was always the case. The actors were aged 14 when they joined the cast, so they experienced first hand how the Harry Potter films function as a somewhat embarrassing documentary of the cast’s journey through their awkward teen years.
“Ugh, I know!” groans Oliver, cringing. “How was it physically possible for my voice to be that high (laughs)?”
Don’t ask me!
For Evanna, being thrown into the spotlight at such a young age could have been dangerous. Having suffered anorexia for two years before she first auditioned for Harry Potter, the highly pressurised and in many ways image-focused lifestyle might have been difficult for her.
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